1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to manufacturing and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing metal components. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for performing shot peening on of metal components.
2. Background
In manufacturing various components, it may be desirable to improve the properties of the material. One process that may be performed on a metal material may be peening. Peening may be a process of working a surface of a metal to change the properties of the metal. Typically, the change may be an improvement to the properties of the metal. Peening may be performed using a mechanical means such as, for example, without limitation, blows by a hammer, shot peening, and laser peening.
With shot peening, a surface of a metal material may be impacted with shot to produce a compressive residual stress layer and modify mechanical properties of the metal. The impact of the shot may occur with a force sufficient to create plastic deformation. This type of process may be performed using shot in the form of, for example, without limitation, round metal particles, glass particles, ceramic particles, or other suitable particles.
Shot peening a surface may cause changes in the mechanical properties and may be performed in manufacturing aircraft parts and aircraft repairs. Shot peening may be performed to relieve tensile stresses that may build up in various components and replace those stresses with beneficial compressive stresses. Shot peening may be performed on various surfaces of an aircraft part such as, for example, without limitation, a wing, a tail, a fuselage, or part thereof, or some other surface or portion of a surface of an aircraft.
Shot peening may be performed using booths and/or computer-controlled systems. This type of shot peening may be referred to as an automated shot peening operation. Manual shot peening also may be performed by operators and may be used when the particular aircraft part may be too large and/or irregular in shape to fit within a booth and/or to be processed by a computer-controlled system. Further, manual shot peening may be performed as a touch-up in addition to automated shot peening to process an area or portion of a surface that was not shot peened by a computer-controlled system.
Manually performing shot peening may be laborious and time-consuming. For example, when shot peening is performed on an edge of a wing skin, portable equipment for performing shot peening may be used in which a stream of shot may be directed towards the edge and/or other portion.
Currently, lower air pressures may be used to perform shot peening, such as, for example, without limitation, around 12 pounds per square inch to around 15 pounds per square inch. If the air pressure increases too much, the force at which the shot impacts the surface of the metal material may be greater than desired. With a lower amount of air pressure, the amount of shot media that can be introduced into the air stream is limited, and the time needed to perform shot peening is greater than with a higher air pressure.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that overcomes the problems described above, as well as other problems.